During 2011 -2012 there were over 4000 reported incidents of family violence perpetrated by a child under the age of eighteen-years against another family member, with mothers are most at risk with about 80% cent of offenders being male.

Stephen Fontana, Police Assistant Commissioner, expects this number to surge by a further thousand this year and that the current police response system was ‘inadequate for dealing with child-to-parent violence’.

Anglicare Victoria worker, Helen Landau, who established the Breaking the Cycle program for parents dealing with abusive teenagers said demand for the service had significantly increased in the past few years. Helen listed time-poor working parents, rising divorce rates, entertainment media violence, the upswing in cyber bullying, poor youth self-esteem and ongoing sexism as major contributing factors.